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Home away from home

makes you both nostalgic and independent, says S.S.KAVITHA

PHOTO: G.MOORTHY

IT'S FUN Enjoying life to the hilt

Lungis, bermudas, nighties lay strewn.... pile of books, notebooks and assignment papers are spread all over the cot... window sills accommodate oil bottles, cosmetics, cassettes, CDs and batteries. At a first glance a typical hostel room appears all messy. But actually an order prevails in this disorder with the enormous stock of lessons in life that egg on hostellers to face the world.

"We meet different characters in a protected area. It boosts our confidence and surely help us in future," says C. Lydia Nancy of Fatima College. Her junior V. Poornima Parvathi points out that hostel-life means saving valuable time. She asserts that compared to her classmates, who exhaust energy and time commuting in crowded city buses daily, she is able to save time and feel fresh.

Community living

"Hostel life is all about community living, mutual adjustments, sharing of ideas, caring, kindness and compassion, self-reliance, responsibility and team spirit," says Ms.Poornima. "The hostel life also nurtures a systematic life, teaches time and money management. Students learn to live with inconveniences," argues R. Niveditha.

The foremost advantage all hostellers have is an exposure to many languages and culture. "It always helps to learn a new language," says S. Shabrini.

"Hostel life grooms every individual, both for college and corporate life. It provides you with a survival kit and your life is in your hands. It depends on how you take it and mould it," says Ms. Poornima. E. Tharini Jaquline of Lady Doak College considers hostel life as an important component of an individual's personal education. The experiences provides an environment favourable for development and affords excellent opportunities for social, cultural and extra-curricular involvements, she vouches.

"Every person should have a hostel stint to be able to lead an adaptable life to any situations," assert S.R. Sathya Devi and K. Chandini of LDC. Life can be enjoyed to the core with all fun and entertainment only in hostels, assures K. Abilasha.

Missing anything

Do day scholars miss a lot? "Yes they do. They spent little time on the campus and fail to enjoy real college life. Most hostellers continue their friendship but day scholars lose touch once they are out of college," feel Sayta Devi and Chandini.

Pat remarks A. Hassan Banu: "Hostel life strengthens you emotionally. Living away from home and doing things that mothers do at home for you makes one independent and self-sufficient." "But sometimes some hostel rules are too stringent. They try to keep a check on student activities and genuine students lose out on fun. But there are students who do misuse the freedom. It is a vicious circle," she adds.

The thought of being alone away from the watchful eyes of parents appears attractive. But once you are on your own, you tend to realise that there is no place like home, admit many hostellers. Hostel life teaches different things at different levels, says T. Chellapandi of American College, who has spend 10 years of his academic life in hostels. "It has given me self-reliance, self-confidence, patience ... Hostel is my second home now," says this MSW I Year student, who has led a hostel life ever since he was in Class IX.

Life in most hostels has a seamier side too, he says, adding that despite stringent rules and regulations, many bad habits thrive albeit in a clandestine manner. "Hostel experience wields considerable influence on the lives of people. The onus rests on the individuals to imbibe its positive influences and chase away the negative ones," is the advise of this youth, who is ardently involved in theatre. "Self confidence is one of the priceless gains of hostel life," reiterates John Romi of American College. "At home parents think for me whereas in hostel life I think for myself and commit mistakes and learn from them. For certain problems nobody comes to the rescue, not even your friends. You struggle hard to set right the situation," he says.

Entertainment

For both men and women, entertainment is limited to gossip and mimicry or listening to music and chatting away on mobiles. Interestingly, hostellers are willing to prescribe hostel life either for their brothers, sisters, and relatives or even for their own children but only after a hectic scrutiny.

Though most of the hostels provide all amenities including the browsing facility on the campus and change menu every month on the recommendations of students, there are hardships and students take it in their stride, says S. Raghavan of Yadava College. "It is marvellous and really worth the experience. I enjoy hostel life a lot but I also miss home because there is nothing like home."

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